Lessons, Activities & Other Curriculum Resources for Teaching About the 1965 Selma to Montgomery Marches, Nonviolent Activism, the Voting Rights Movement, and More

On February 18, 1965, an Alabama State Trooper shot and killed Jimmie Lee Jackson during a protest march to Jackson from Selma to Montgomery with the purpose of talking to Governor George Wallace about Jackson.

Wallace declared the march a threat to public safety, and as a consequence, the first attempted march led by John Lewis was forcibly stopped at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. March 7th became known as Bloody Sunday. One more attempt failed before the successful March 21st march with Martin Luther King, John Lewis, Ralph Abernathy, Ralph Bunche, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Rabbi Maurice Davis and thousands of others.

The following lessons and resources will help students celebrate the sacrifices and achievements of the men and women involved.

That was then...now it is the republican party trying to turn time backwards through voter suppression, health care,social security, cuts in education budgets,minimum wage,etc. We have politicians who are being "paid" by billionaires to do what they want regardless of how it hurts the American people. If you are watching cable Fox news, watch a reliable station that has facts.

Krystal Atkinson | 2015/02/12

Brian Lewis, I don't mean to be rude, but that is an unimportant fact. The importance is teaching acceptance of all races, backgrounds and beliefs. Our students need to see that there was a time when the people they are used to seeing daily, would not have been allowed to enjoy the simple, daily freedoms we all take for granted today. Politics can be seen and taught daily, Black History is only given one month. That month also happens to be the shortest month of the year.

Brian Lewis | 2015/02/11

Lets not forget to teach that it was the democratic party that fought to the death to keep slaves, started and ran and still runs the KKK and defeated every piece of equal rights legislation proposed till Lyndon Johnson who came up with a way to destroy the black families and called it a war on poverty. The trooper was a democrat, Wallace and the others were too. Wise up America, it has not changed.

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